Review: Hugh Jackman's 'The Front Runner' Confronts The Political Conundrum Of Our Time

Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner, based on Matt Bai’s 2014 non-fiction book and opening on Election Day courtesy of Sony, tries to have it both ways. It wants to be a fiery screed about the dangers of mainstream media engaging in tabloid reporting, especially when it comes to politics, while also acknowledging the holier-than-thou attitude of the guy whose public screw-up got us into this mess in the first place. It doesn’t come right out and say that allegedly “great men” should get a pass for their personal indiscretions, but nor does it lay enough of the blame at the feet of the guy who got caught. It’s a tough needle to thread, and I’m not sure Reitman and company pulled it off.

Starring Hugh Jackman as Gary Hart in a saga detailing what would be the last three weeks of his 1988 presidential campaign, the picture revels in its inside baseball politics and its borderline nostalgia for a time when we at least pretended to care more about the issues than the personalities or the digressions. Like Truth, the 2015 film about the botched 60 Minutes report on George W. Bush’s military service, it argues that good people trying to do right screwed up and had their mistakes pounced upon by insincere political opportunists to nationwide ruin. But it’s a little harder to sympathize with a philandering politician.

The picture drops us into the thick of the 1984 campaign right as Hart (a low-key and weather Jackman, oddly eschewing his usual star charisma) conceding the nomination to Walter Mondale. As you know, Mondale got slaughtered by Ronald Regan in the general election, losing all but one state in the electoral college (despite still winning 41% of the popular vote). So, four years later, Hart is back in the thick of it, as he argues that the failed 1984 campaign was partially to introduce himself on the national stage for the next time anyway. And this time out, he quickly becomes the front runner for the nomination and the general election.

With a clear talent for distilling policy into practical terms and a disdain for the pageantry, Hart finds himself all-too-unprepared for a media that seems all too ready to begin focusing on the personal as well as the political. As such, when rumblings about private extramarital affairs start leaking, he refuses to answer out of a belief that the public doesn’t care and that they are a distraction from the issues. But then he more-or-less gets his hands caught in the cookie jar. Those around him find themselves struggling with a tainted candidate who doesn’t want to confront the elephant in the room.

There can be little doubt of the long-term effects, both in terms of modern politics as a circus/horse-race and just in terms of how much different the country might have been, had Gary Hart won the Democratic nomination and presumably the presidency in 1988. And yet, at the end of the day, it was Hart’s own behavior that doomed him, and arguably us 30 years ago. His swift and public downfall is now an almost routine occurrence as folks “on our side” are cast out for whatever misdeeds are uncovered while those on the “other side” stick by their own through thick and thin.

What good is it what we toss Al Franken overboard when the result is one less passionately liberal senator fighting for reproductive choice and against climate change? When we ditch ours and they don’t ditch theirs, since they don’t care about hypocrisy or anything other than tax cuts, court picks and a permanent majority, what value is there to “going high” when they continue to “go low” with little regard for public sentiment? The Front Runner, as well-acted and well-intentioned as it is, isn’t quite willing to go there because the film never forces Hart to take responsibility for the Pandora’s box that he has opened.

Warts and all, this is still a solid and entertaining adult drama. J.K. Simmons offers a finely low-key turn as Hart’s campaign manager while Vera Farmiga gets at least one great moment as Hart’s betrayed wife. Sarah Paxton offers a nuanced and sympathetic turn as Donna Rice (the Monica Lewinsky of her era) and Molly Ephraim is terrific as Irene Kelly, the lone high-level female staffer on the campaign who tries to salvage her boss’s campaign without hanging Donna out to dry. Jackman himself offers a low-key and mostly internal turn, although he comes off oddly lacking in charisma for a guy who was taking the electoral process by storm.

The Front Runner is a visually and occasionally narratively claustrophobic drama telling a major story from its insular point-of-view. It is generally engrossing and handsomely staged, with good actors chewing on meaty character roles with relish. It is one of those meat-and-potato character dramas, true-story or no, that are rare enough in the studio system that their existence qualifies as a modest win. It’s a good movie, but I wish it was more willing to deal with its central conundrum. Voters were arguably right to want better private behavior from their public leaders. Yet, that desire allowed openly immoral folks to take the reins of power.

If you like what you're reading, follow @ScottMendelson on Twitter, and "like" The Ticket Booth on Facebook. Also, check out my archives for older work HERE.